SNK

From Sega Retro

SNK is a Japanese video game publisher. SNK stands for "Shin Nihon Kikaku," translated to "New Japan Project."

The company was founded by Eikichi Kawasaki in 1978, who presided over SNK until its collapse in fall 2000, due to (purportedly deliberate) under-financing by then-parent company Aruze. SNK's properties were then scattered out amongst several other entities, from Korean-based Eolith and Mega Enterprises to Japan-based Noise Factory. However, in anticipation of Aruze's actions, Kawasaki founded a new holding company by the name of Playmore, then spent the following year chasing down the rights to these intellectual properties; as of mid-2002, Kawasaki had regained all of SNK's property—most recently, the SNK name itself. As such, in 2003, the company name was changed to "SNK Playmore". Many of SNK's former staff, as of 2000, is currently employed at the new company. Even so, there remains a division in some sections of the fan community, where for every person who thinks Playmore has done a great job so far, given the circumstances, a certain number remain disgruntled over the changes of the past few years.

SNK is best known for its Neo Geo video game console and arcade system, which they have been developing for since the early 1990s. The majority of their popular games were released for the Neo Geo, and some were later ported over to other more popular systems. SNK also had a few variations of the Neo Geo, such as the Neo Geo Gold, the Neo Geo CD, the Neo Geo CDZ, and the Neo Geo 64. They also made two handheld systems, the Neo Geo Pocket and the Neo Geo Pocket Color.

In late 1995 Sega and SNK signed an exclusivity deal, securing a number of Neo Geo games for conversion to the Sega Saturn. In return, Sega were due to bring some of its library over to the Neo Geo CD, something which never materialised.